ABOUT
| Comments
Wallsend Football Club, one of the first established clubs in Australia in 1887, is affectionately known as “The Red Devils,” wearing the symbolic club colours of red and white.
A dwindling in the fortunes of our once powerful stature has seen the club decline into relative obscurity in the last decade or so, henceforth rendering the next decade and onwards as a rebuilding phase of the club’s life. In seeking participation in the highest division in Northern NSW, the NBN State League [a position once dominated by W.F.C.], the club has made some tough decisions to drop down divisions in an attempt to secure and build foundations that can once again propel the club into future success.
The club plays out of The Gardens Sporting Complex, formerly Breakers Stadium [home of the now defunct National Soccer League teams that were based in Newcastle], in Birmingham Gardens. The facility remains one of the best in Newcastle; an asset that the club wishes to withhold in its push up the divisions.
In 2010, the long-awaited amalgamation with Wallsend Junior Soccer Club had been secured – a decision aimed at guaranteeing the development growth of the Junior Club’s young players, while providing them with a pathway to the Senior Club’s teams. This will only serve to strengthen the progress of young talent in the greater-Wallsend region and its surrounding suburbs.
The Junior Club has also seen some difficult years but has pulled through strongly and now facilitates and nurtures the potential of a large number of junior players from around the region. A few consecutive successful seasons, both on and off the field, has been the platform to an increase in participation and club stability.
Now as one, Wallsend Football Club has begun to plan a golden future; plans that include the involvement and engagement of the local community. This process has started with the creation of the club’s Six-A-Side Competition, drawing on a large basin of players from Wallsend, its surrounding suburbs, and greater Newcastle. The aim is to procide this service for years to come, creating a continuum of positive community engagement with the club.
The future of the club is held tightly-close to the hearts of a large number of committee members, former club-men and women, and those of the community who have been affected by the club in a positive way. These are the people who will again push the club to its rightful place amongst the elite of Northern NSW.
